Abstract

Doug and Mike Starn: Evolution from Photography to Public Art investigates the pioneering installations and public art by Doug and Mike Starn, establishes their position within the complete oeuvre and examines the confluence of media they have worked in, while situating the artists and their work within the contemporary art historic context. Intrinsic characteristics of the Starn brothers’ work are the principles of interconnectedness, continuity, duality and change, a continuous evolution combined with a stunning ability to reinvent their work, redefining entire art genres in the process. Identical twins Doug and Mike Starn, born in 1961 and included in the 1987 Whitney Biennial at the age of 26, work collaboratively. The primary medium of photography characterizes their early work, evolving in the 1990s to include artist books, large-scale video projections, and installations. Incidentally, their first permanent public art commission is tied to the reconstruction of New York’s infrastructure following the tragedy of September 11, 2001. The goal is to delineate context, process, and significance of the artists’ foray into public art. An analysis and interpretation of artistic production, context, partnerships, process, scale and reception will reveal the transition from stellar gallery production to installation art and exceptional public art. Highlights of the pair’s stellar career include the completion of two important public art projects in New York City in 2008 and 2010, one permanent and one temporary: the permanent public art environment See it split, see it change on the concourse of South Ferry Subway Station at the tip of Manhattan and the temporary, monumental Big Bambú installation on the Metropolitan Museum’s roof garden. These outstanding works were preceded by years of artistic inquiry and development in the genre of photography, whose path the study explores.